6MM ARC upper thoughts on BCA vs

[CZ527 Guy]

Looking for thoughts On Bear  Creek Arsenal offerings. I keep kicking around a 6mm ARC upper & BCA  recently caught my attention.

Lets here the good the bad & the ugly if that applies. 24" barrel interest me or at least 22".

[grayfox]

Lots of both in that brand imo. Sometimes you get a shooter, most times not, only a glorified tomato stake. Plus it will be hard to tune for its loads -- that money you thought you were saving will be spent in ammo, gas to the range and time.
It's so easy to build your own, and you get better parts to boot. Plus during black friday week, plenty of discounts abound.
Get a good barrel, a GOOD one, then the rest of the parts to hold the upper together.
Monster (sixfive), Odin, Ballistic advantage, even a CMMG or lilja...
I personally don't feel the need to go beyond 20" in an AR, maybe 22" if you really want to push it... ps the R+1 or R+2 gas tubes, might want to get that from the barrel maker.
Get a no-name upper receiver, or an Aero (my preference), a stoner, presma, matrix foxtrot handguard, the gas block of your choice and a gas tube... badda bing badda boom! Muzzle brake or etc...
edit to add: o yeah, plus - for 6Arc - the chamber dimensions are very important... a quality barrel will have the right throat length. by the way sixfive puts just a tad more throat in there to make 105 etc bullet seating a bit easier on you.

[tpepper70]

I've had several BCA uppers, some shot good, others were so, so. If you want precision, get a better barrel, if you don't mind 1"-3" groups, BCA. That being said, my BCA 6.5 Grendel Barrel shot .5"-.75" groups all day long, buy only after it had about 65-70 rounds thru it. Good luck to ya and Happy Thanksgiving.

[UncleBob]

I've had good experience with BCA barrels. They are finicky, meaning there are only a few loads they shoot really well. So load development is a must. Most forged uppers are very similar to each other, since there are only 4 forging houses that produce them and pretty much everyone runs the same CNC code. Some hold better tolerances, but overall I haven't seen much deterrence.
I like the Aero M4E1 upper, seems to split the differences between billet uppers and the run of the mill forged units. Billet uppers are more rigid, and have a tighter fit on barrel extensions, making the upper more consistent with better grouping. A good, correctly headspaced bolt is the other key element. The handguard makes zero difference.
Having said that, I have a .223 Wylde BCA barrel on a blem forged upper with an Aero BCG and a super cheapie handguard that prints 3/4 MOA 5 shot groups all day. That is with some work developing the load. Hope this helps.

[300BLK]

Looking for thoughts On Bear  Creek Arsenal offerings. I keep kicking around a 6mm ARC upper & BCA  recently caught my attention.

Lets here the good the bad & the ugly if that applies. 24" barrel interest me or at least 22".

I bought a BCA side charging upper and put a 300BLK barrel on it.  Its a really nice upper with BCG for what amounts to the price of a BCG.

I just ordererd another to put a 6mm ARC barrel on, and this one WILL be used as a straight pull bolt.  I'm swapping out their bolt with a SixFive.  I have a Faxon 20" heavy fluted barrel ordered, and hope it shoots well.

[UncleBob]

Looking for thoughts On Bear  Creek Arsenal offerings. I keep kicking around a 6mm ARC upper & BCA  recently caught my attention.

Lets here the good the bad & the ugly if that applies. 24" barrel interest me or at least 22".

I bought a BCA side charging upper and put a 300BLK barrel on it.  Its a really nice upper with BCG for what amounts to the price of a BCG.

I just ordererd another to put a 6mm ARC barrel on, and this one WILL be used as a straight pull bolt.  I'm swapping out their bolt with a SixFive.  I have a Faxon 20" heavy fluted barrel ordered, and hope it shoots well.

I put one of the Faxon 20" on my rifle, Shoots really well.

[GRH]

Pardon me if you already know...

Whatever upper you get, be sure to hone or at least check the face before locking that barrel in. Also, sometimes the barrel extension requires shimming or sleeve retaining compound to mate it to the upper firmly.

My last assembly (Aero upper/lower) was so close but not close enough. Didn't have any .0005 shim stock so I used sleeve retaining compound. Permatex stuff is good up to 400f.

[Old Bob]

I attempted to build a 6.5 Grendel with a BCA side cocker upper receiver. The barrel I had was a fluted Odin 18". The fit was really sloppy. The barrel would rattle in the upper with the barrel nut just hand-tight. Back when I was doing this I didn't know that BCA parts could be less than optimum. I got a 20" Wilson Combat barrel for this build. Was disappointed it too rattled around in the BCA upper.

Still wanting a side cocking upper, I ordered one from Precision Firearms. That one needed to be heated before I could install the WC barrel. I could not insert it by hand.

Since my initial experience with BCA components I've read numerous horror stories about their products. Some are perfect, no problems, some are crap! It seems their QC has been less than stellar. Has it improved? I dunno ...

[300BLK]

I mated a 20" Faxon heavy, fluted barrel to a BCA sidecharge upper this morning. The NiBo barrel extension was snug going into the slickside receiver and needed a sharp rap to seat the last 1/8". This has been the norm with various barrels and receivers I've used including Vltor uppers. I had one that was a little looser and one that was little tighter.

The BCA 556 bolt was swapped out with a SixFive Outfitters bolt .